Category: Elections

Q & A with Pat Fletcher, District 6 Board of Education Candidate

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IMG_7196This is part of an ongoing series of interviews with the 2018 Prince George’s County Board of Education candidates. Pat Fletcher is a candidate from District 6 (see district map here) running in the June 26 primary election. Ms. Fletcher answered questions generated by members of Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools.

Prince George’s County Advocates for Better Schools does not endorse or oppose any candidate for the Board of Education.

Tell us about your background and your plans to move our school system forward. Why do you want to be on the Board of Education?

I am running to block administration and politicians from using our children and educators as political footballs. I am running to be the voice of the parents of our children who feel that their voices are not being heard. I am running for those parents, educators and children who receive little or no direction to be prepared to avoid incidents only to get them after the fact. I am running for that teacher who went in her pocket and spent her last $25 to ensure that a student had a pen, notebook and paper. I am running for that CEO who gave her all to the Head Start program and was terminated due to others in action (now going around the country inspecting Head Start programs for US Dept. of Education). I am running for that bus driver who rescued our babies from a burning bus and gets a dismal salary. I am running for that custodian who takes the extra time to actually talk and listen to our children. We have awesome children and staff. I am running to ensure they all have the resources they need so that our children will be competitive and succeed.

I started in the community and political arena when I was seven and perhaps earlier. Going to tenant association meetings, PTA, and commissioners’ meetings with my mom. She was active with the Toastmasters and a member of the Community Mental Health citizen’s advisory board. All of this took place in DC. I started in the political arena in Prince Georges’ County under Tommy Broadwater when he asked a group of us to volunteer for Steny Hoyer when he ran in the special election for Gladys Noon Spellman’s vacated seat. Assisted the statewide treasurer for Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign (Carolyn Howard, Joanne Benson, Paul Pinsky, all teachers back then were Jackson Delegates and/or worked on the campaign). Treasurer for PGCDCC, School Board Member from 2006-2010; former president and vice president of Kentland/Columbia Park Boys and Girls Club; former PTA President of Forestville HS and G. James Gholson MS and presently president of Board of Directors for Village Green Mutual Homes, Inc. a cooperative in Landover for low to moderate income families. I have lived in Prince George’s County for over 40 years. Mother of two daughters and grandmother of 4. Both my daughters are graduates of county school system. Youngest daughter was an English teacher for 14 years in our school system. I have one grandchild presently attending a county school.

I bring with me a wealth of history of Prince George’s County school system. From directly experiencing the desegregation of the schools and the creation of magnet schools (which was segregation in disguise), the racism in selection of minority children in the TAG program, the building of a fence around Bowie annex when students from Bladensburg had to go there while Bladensburg HS was being rebuilt and were not allowed to walk in the Bowie neighborhood, minority students not being able to take AP courses, and the schools in my district getting little or no funding. I am a firm believer in that you need to know and understand where you have been before you can move forward.

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Groups Produce “Sample Ballots” Not Authorized by Democratic Party

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

Many Prince George’s County residents have received a mailer that contains what appears to be an official sample ballot for the Democratic party. Words in large letters across the top read, “2016 Democratic Sample Ballot; Take this with you when you vote.” The mailer even bears the Democratic logo: a red and blue donkey with white stars.

Predictably, voters are instructed to support the Democratic candidates for president, U.S. senator, and congressional representative. But voters are also told to vote for a particular slate of judicial candidates, as well as candidates for the Board of Education. This is highly misleading. School board elections and judicial elections are nonpartisan; candidates do not run as representatives of a political party.

Moreover, this sample ballot is not actually produced or authorized by the Democratic party. According to the fine print in the bottom left corner, the mailer is authorized by two committees: the Committee to Elect the Sitting Judge, a nonpartisan group advocating for election of the sitting judges of the Prince George’s County Circuit Court, and the Committee for ReCharge At-Large, a pro-Question-D group that supports adding two at-large candidates to the County Council.

2016-democratic-sample-ballot-1-1

In previous election years, the Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee has voted to endorse a slate of candidates for the Board of Education. This year, however, the Committee voted against endorsing school board candidates. The Committee also decided not to endorse a position on Question D, which would add two at-large seats to the County Council. But the mailer tells Prince George’s County residents to vote “yes” on Question D, suggesting that the Democratic party officially supports the proposal.

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Party Politics, Exhibit A: Sample Ballots

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by Genevieve Demos Kelley

2016 sample ballot mailer2

Last week, I eagerly listened to a segment on Kojo Nnamdi’s WAMU radio show that addressed our politicized school board elections. David Cahn, Co-Chair of Citizens for an Elected Board, and Cheryl Landis, District 5 Board of Education Candidate and Chair of the Democratic Central Committee for Prince George’s County were guests on the show.

At one point, Mr. Nnamdi seemed to understate—or even misstate—the concern that so many of us have about partisan meddling in our school board elections. Speaking to Cheryl Landis, Mr. Nnamdi said, “Mr. Cahn and presumably others are concerned that you make it clear in some of your campaigning that you are a Democrat.”

If Mr. Nnamdi thinks that simply stating one’s party affiliation sums up the problem with partisan campaigns for school board, he is sadly missing the point.

Among the campaign literature for April’s primary election was a mailer sent to District 5 residents touting County Executive Baker’s endorsed candidates. Note the “sample ballot” on page 2 (pictured above), with the banner at the top reading, “2016 Democratic Primary Sample Ballot, Take this with you when you vote.” Names of the preferred candidates are highlighted; names of the other candidates are printed so lightly that only those with sharp eyesight can read them.

When a school board candidate is presented on a sample ballot as the preferred choice (or, in this case, the only choice) of party leaders, it is nearly impossible for any other candidate to prevail. This is the kind of partisan meddling that has led many county residents to conclude that party leaders are stacking the board with hand-selected members, members who owe them their loyalty.